Banker's Life Insurance Company review: Life insurance policy

Policy #[protected], insured name: Judy Peterson. My mother is 84 years old, legally blind and has dementia. She bought a policy none of us children knew about after she already started experiencing dementia (she does not even recall getting this policy). This was in 2016. Seven years of premium payment on a $10,000 policy and it has a cash value of $2,300 and change.

Three months ago in October 2023 she was diagnosed officially with dementia and it was concluded she needs to go into memory care assisted living and we have two family members (myself and my sister) as her financial and medical power of attorneys. She has no long term care insurance and we do not have the assets to pay for her continued care.

To meet the guidelines of the the medicaid waiver program because she does not have retirement funds to self fund, her assets must be down below $2,000.We enrolled her at a facility in early November 2023 with the understanding that two months of rent will drain her assets down to under $2,000 after we liquidate the insurance policy, so she can apply for the medicaid waiver program.

We contacted Banker's Life Insurance Company in early October and gave them great detail about why she was canceling her life insurance policy and we were told she had to sign paperwork they (Banker's Life) would send us. They said when they receive that signed form, the policy would be canceled and the cash value check would be sent 7-10 days thereafter. She signed the form and we sent the form to the address they provided.

Almost a month later in late October they responded back saying they need a copy of the power of attorney (POA) to process the request because her signature did not match the signature on the policy and assured us that is all that will be needed. I again say my mother is BLIND so her signature is absolutely not going to match (even the signature on the original policy is not on the signature line and is crooked leaning upwards because she could not see to sign it!). So we sent that POA right away.

Three weeks later when we had not heard anything we contacted them again and they said they never received the POA so we sent it again. They finally just responded back and have now said we need to get guardianship.

They did not mention needing guardianship A SINGLE TIME since the beginning of October. We have exhausted almost all her checking and savings but cannot apply for the Medicaid waiver until this policy is LIQUIDATED. The cost to get guardianship includes retaining an attorney and the time to go to court.

It appears Banker's Life has delayed this entire process intentionally by omitting requirements and causing delays, even saying they did not receive requested information that we sent them. They are unethically efforting to have us abandon the cash value of this policy (like they already pocketed seven years of premiums), knowing we are not going to hire an attorney to get guardianship for our parent when it costs more than the cash value of the policy. This is deliberate unethical theft of the assets of an elderly person after deliberately delaying the process of canceling her policy as well as deliberately changing the requirements to liquidate the policy every step of the way. We told them since the first phone call we made that we needed to liquidate the policy ASAP so she could apply for the medicaid waiver.

They first said they needed the form signed by her and nothing else - yes I asked them on the phone on the initial phone call. Then they said they needed the power of attorney and nothing else. Now they say they need one of us to become a legal guardian?

We cannot afford $6,000 a month for her care which is coming up again in a few days and the medicaid waiver program will not kick in until that policy is liquidated.

This is completely unacceptable.